Dr Lovleen Bhullar is Assistant Professor in Environmental Law at the University of Cambridge, as a speaker at our upcoming conference in London on 31 October.

Dr Bullar, together with Gita Parihar, a senior legal consultant specialising in environmental and human rights law, has co-authored the paper “Reviving India’s River Goddesses: Ecocide, the Right to a Healthy Environment and Rights of Nature”.

Their work explores the synergies between the proposed international crime of Ecocide, the right to a healthy environment, and the rights of nature.

The UCLA Law in The Hague students are spending this week in Geneva!

On Day 1, the students were able to watch the UN Human Rights Council consider reports on unilateral sanctions, mercenaries and the right to water – and grab a photo with long-time Promise Institute collaborator Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation! They also visited non-profit International Bridges to Justice, and finished the day with a traditional Swiss cheese fondue.

We were delighted to join the community reception and forum for University of California alumni, students, and friends in the Netherlands at the 25th anniversary celebration of the study abroad exchange of UC and Utrecht University!

Daniel Adjin Odonkor is a lawyer and researcher with the Centre of Criminology at the University of Cape Town, where his work explores the intersection of criminal law, human rights, and social justice.

Daniel proposes an innovative solution through a "hybrid" definition of ecocide, that balances environmental protection with human rights.

His approach addresses developing nations' concerns about restricting their growth while maintaining robust environmental protections.

The conference can be attended in person and online.

Register Here 📝

📅 Join us on Wednesday, September 24, at 7 PM for a new IDN Interview !

IDN France - Initiatives for Nuclear Disarmament will welcome Kate Mackintosh, Executive Director and Professor from Practice at the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, and Dr. Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Amsterdam, and member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Register Here 📝

This one-day conference will bring together international perspectives on ecocide from Ghana and Africa, Brazil, Colombia and Latin America, Jamaica, and Small Island Developing States. 

Discussions will address critical issues including anthropocentrism, corporate responsibility, sentencing, and mens rea. 

Register Here 📝

The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA is seeking a Legal Advisor for its Europe location. Working closely with the Executive Director, the Legal Advisor will contribute to all aspects of the Institute’s development, with a focus on legal research and drafting as well as project management. As a key member of a small team in a fast-developing Institute, the Legal Advisor must be able to work independently and to take a leadership role on relevant initiatives. This is an exciting opportunity for a talented human rights lawyer to contribute their skills and expertise to empowering the next generation of human rights lawyers, scholars and leaders, and transforming the promise of human rights into a reality for more people around the world.

In The First Ecocide Treaty? (EJIL:Talk!, June 2025), Daniel Bertram traces the shifting legal definitions of ecocide from the 1970s to today, advocating for a definition that is both flexible and forward-looking. His analysis emphasises the importance of including reckless acts and omissions, while cautioning against rigid cost-benefit limitations.

Nature Matters, edited by Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf, gathers African, Asian, and Caribbean diaspora voices to reimagine environmentalism and ecopoetics. Woolf, our 2020 Poet in Residence at the UCLA Promise Institute, explored the intersections of poetry, law, and capitalism’s impacts on marginalised communities.

In A Barrister for the Earth, pioneering barrister Monica Feria-Tinta takes us behind the scenes of landmark legal cases defending rivers, forests, and endangered species. Feria-Tinta, a distinguished speaker at our 2024 launch conference, shared insights into the groundbreaking ITLOS Advisory Opinion on climate change.

We are seeking an Executive Director to help lead and advance our mission to provide the premier legal education in the field of human rights, empower the next generation of human rights lawyers, scholars and leaders, and to transform the promise of human rights into a reality for more people around the world.

The landmark opinion handed down by the world’s highest court on Wednesday sets a new framework for legal efforts to address the climate emergency.

We were delighted to see the neglected climate impacts of armed conflict addressed by US Judge Cleveland in her Declaration.

Our ED Kate Mackintosh was in the courtroom of the International Court of Justice yesterday to hear the delivery of the historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Change. Among other significant findings, the Court held that States are under a binding legal obligation to protect the climate system; that there is a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment which is essential for the enjoyment of other human rights, and that the principle of non-refoulement applies to people who have been forced to leave their country due to climate change.  

🚨 Late last week the IACtHR issued a landmark Advisory Opinion on the climate emergency and human rights. The Opinion marks a major step forward in articulating the ways the climate emergency is related to human rights harms. Crucially, the Opinion also* establishes obligations and standards which States must meet in response to the climate emergency — obligations set according to the standards of international human rights law. 👏👏👏

The shootings at the GHF food distributions in Gaza, at which over 500 people have already been killed and thousands injured, are a violation of core humanitarian principles and can be considered a potential war crime, says our Executive Director Kate Mackintosh.
In an interview with Al Jazeera this morning she warns that GHF staff may be complicit in these war crimes and could potentially be prosecuted by many states around the world.

🟠 Webinar Announcement: Introducing Ecocide – Towards a New International Crime
📅 Wednesday, July 2, 2025
🕛 12:00–1:30 PM ET
📍 Online (free & open to all)

We’re pleased to share an important upcoming webinar hosted by the International Human Rights Committees of the American Bar Association (ABA) Sections on Civil Rights & Social Justice and International Law. This session will explore the legal, procedural, and moral case for recognizing ecocide as an international crime.

Immigration is a broad and complex topic. With his book Borders and Belonging, Professor Hiroshi Motomura offers a framework that helps deepen the conversation and foster meaningful dialogue, identifying the overlapping but distinct claims of humanity and belonging.

Our Executive Director, Kate Mackintosh joined a distinguished gathering in the margins of the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice to discuss the importance of creating a crime of Ecocide.

Hosted by the states of Vanuatu and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the event included ministers, government officials and MPs from Ghana, Guatemala and Tahiti, united in their commitment to end the destruction of our shared environment.

Ecocide in Peru: Repsol and the Colonial Regime of Permission, Ignasi Bernat Molina, Environmental Politics (May 2025).

This paper examines the 2022 Repsol oil spill in Peru as a case study, demonstrating how the disaster resulted from long-term decisions by both Spanish and Peruvian states. It argues that ecocide must be understood within a colonial matrix that enriches fossil capital while creating conditions for ecological destruction.

Thanks to the stellar work of our research assistants Ava Schuster and John Dover, our annotated bibliography on international criminal law and environmental protection is fully updated! We’re excited to share the most powerful reads we have come across. Today’s highlight:

The Destruction of Indigenous Communities’ Landscapes: An Aggravated Form of Ecocide? Jérôme de Hemptinne & Helena Szczupak, EJIL:Talk! (May 2025)

This piece explores whether peacetime industrial destruction of Indigenous landscapes constitutes an aggravated form of ecocide.

Our Executive Director Kate Mackintosh was honoured to assist Monica Lennon as a member of her expert advisory committee. She spoke to BBC Radio Scotland to explain the bill.